NES / Famicom controller with Turbo buttons

FARID · Post by **FARID** » Tue May 17, 2011 11:40 am

Does anyone have any information about NES or Famicom controller?
Is there any schematic for that?

I found this but it doesn't support turbo buttons :

I need something which support turbo buttons.

Post by **tepples** » Tue May 17, 2011 12:04 pm

So you want to patch turbo into the JOY1 schematic shown above. Do you want NES Max-style turbo with different buttons? Or do you want NES Advantage/TG16/SN ProPad style turbo with an on/off switch for each button's turbo feature? Either way, you'll need an oscillator set somewhere between 15 and 30 Hz to generate a signal used to modulate the output of the A, B, and Start switches before they hit the 4021 shift register.

FARID · Post by **FARID** » Tue May 17, 2011 12:23 pm

I have a Micro Genius controller :

Inside it there is an IC :

UM6582
0229

It is DIP14.

I want to make one, like that.

What is the full name of 4021? Is it the same as UM6582?

Post by **Memblers** » Tue May 17, 2011 3:41 pm

I found a schematic someone made of the NES Advantage controller.
http://forums.benheck.com/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=42458

The turbo on the Advantage was pretty nice, because the speed was adjustable. The potentiometer could be replaced with a normal resistor for a fixed speed.

For a separate turbo button, you could use the "A" and "turbo A" buttons as inputs to an AND gate (4073, 4081, 74HC08, etc.), then the output goes your 4021 to be the A button.

FARID · Post by **FARID** » Wed May 18, 2011 9:29 am

This is my own Miro Genius Controller. This controller supports turbo buttons :

What do you think about this schematic. I have not tested it yet :

kevtris · Post by **kevtris** » Wed May 18, 2011 12:33 pm

Memblers wrote:I found a schematic someone made of the NES Advantage controller.
http://forums.benheck.com/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=42458

I don't think that schematic is right. One of the inverters appears to be drawn backwards.

This is the typical connection for this style of oscillator:

http://www.aaroncake.net/forum/uploaded ... llator.PNG

Also, that 120uf capacitor seems awfully high to me. I'm guessing 1uf might be more correct, or possibly 10uf at the outside.

If you don't want to have a turbo on/off switch, and would like a "normal" and "turbo" button (like on that controller) this is possible too by using an NPN transistor across the regular "A" (or B) button, with emitter grounded, and the base connected thru a 10K resistor to the oscillator via the turbo button.

As an aside, that chip in that microgenius controller is an ASIC and is not a standard part. It probably has an oscillator of some form built in, or else it just has a 2 bit or so binary counter on the load line so that it can toggle the button state every 2 or 4 or even 8 frames. That'd negate the need for an oscillator all together.

qbradq · Post by **qbradq** » Wed May 18, 2011 12:36 pm

I always thought turbo controllers used a set / reset flip-flop. That could work, but you would be forced to use a 2 frame cycle.

Post by **tepples** » Wed May 18, 2011 12:45 pm

qbradq wrote:I always thought turbo controllers used a set / reset flip-flop. That could work, but you would be forced to use a 2 frame cycle.

You mean toggle them every strobe? That'd just make games freeze if they use a controller read loop that waits for the buttons to settle. A lot of games using DPCM do this to work around a bug in the NES's DMA controller.

FARID · Post by **FARID** » Wed May 18, 2011 4:38 pm

Don't you think making a SNES controller and cutting the extra stuff to use with NES is much more simpler than your proposal?

Or even making one of these :

qbradq · Post by **qbradq** » Wed May 18, 2011 5:05 pm

tepples wrote:
qbradq wrote:I always thought turbo controllers used a set / reset flip-flop. That could work, but you would be forced to use a 2 frame cycle.
You mean toggle them every strobe? That'd just make games freeze if they use a controller read loop that waits for the buttons to settle. A lot of games using DPCM do this to work around a bug in the NES's DMA controller.

Good point.

TmEE · Post by **TmEE** » Thu May 19, 2011 8:08 am

Simple pulse generator, very suitable for generating turbo signal for the turbo buttons :

FARID · Post by **FARID** » Thu May 19, 2011 12:32 pm

Can you draw a complete schematic on the paper? Then I can design it in Proteus. I will give you full credit.

TmEE · Post by **TmEE** » Thu May 19, 2011 1:10 pm

A bit messy, but have fun :

Post by **Memblers** » Thu May 19, 2011 2:40 pm

Seems like if you pressed B normal and B turbo at the same time (not that you'd want to, but it would be easy to accidentally), the output at pin 8 (on the '00) would be shorted to ground. That's sorta why I was thinking it should go through an AND gate, or alternatively like kevtris said, a transistor.

TmEE · Post by **TmEE** » Fri May 20, 2011 12:21 am

Add 100ohm chip in series with the turbo signal output and no harm will come (assuming HC or AC00 is used)